Let’s walk through a typical rooftop solar water heater installation. 

 Step one：Installation

  To say in brief, we’re first going to do the layout and chalk off where the solar water heater will go. Later put our horizontal rail strut pieces that we're going to mount onto our roof attachments. Then we're going to put together the bracket and mount that to the rail.

• First we have to run the plumbing that's in the attic and stub that out through the roof and into the solar water heater tank. We get the bracket set up and choose where on the roof we're going to put the bracket. Then, we go ahead and put in the strut with the roof attachments for the top underneath the tank.

• The reason we put in the strut there is we're able to hit every rafter which is for example, every two feet on center. We also put a roof attachment and a lag bolt in. Most of the weight obviously is going to be underneath the tank and so it's important to get a good attachment of the system up top.

• Down below we are going to just put in the attachments with L feet directly attached to them. You can also use the quick mount or snap and rack roof attachment system. 

• We then go ahead and position the bracket and chalk out where the flashing should go. In order to install the flashing, the first step is to separate the shingle and make sure that it's coming up so that you can slide the flashing underneath there. Then you position flashing over the bottom chalk mark. 

• Now with the spit drill we're going to drill a hole for the lag. Coming up with wood on the tip tells us that we are indeed hitting the rafter. Once you've got your hole there you put some goop down in this hole just as a backup to the system you're doing.

• Put the flashing back underneath, lining it up with our chalk mark. For a quick PV mount, we're going to put in a rubber grommet, the L foot and the lag in there. Then with our impact driver, we go ahead and cinch it down until this block can't turn anymore. That's how you put in the flashings. This one is going to be a direct flashing - which is the bracket that's going to hook to the strut up there.

• There are two different styles for how to attach the bracket to the roof. In the bottom we do the railer system and then on the top we do quick roof mounts which work really well for mounting strut.

• Since at the bottom we don't have the strut, we have to be really precise. We have to lag into the rafter and the flashing has to line up just right.

• Whereas up on the strut ,we can just focus on getting these roof attachments into the rafters. Having sistered rafters help as they’re a little thicker than a normal roof. We can either attach it to the strut on the outside or on the inside and we can move the bracket around on the strut which gives you a lot of longitude there for not having to line it up perfectly like you do at the bottom.

• Now we'll go ahead and get the tank mounted. After getting the tank mounted onto the bracket, it will allow us to line up our plumbing runs.